Samidoun is partnering with the Palestinian Arab Cultural Club in Beddawi refugee camp in Lebanon to support their work to provide a "people's ambulance" for the people of the camp, who have limited access to health services, especially ambulance transportation.
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon face institutional discrimination, lack of access to necessary services, and significant levels of poverty. At the core of this, of course, is the fact that they have been and continued to be denied their fundamental right to return to their homes and lands in occupied Palestine. Expelled from Palestine by Zionist forces during the Nakba, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have been upholding their right to return for 73 years. Help support their steadfastness and their struggle for return and liberation by providing the medical services they need to live and thrive.
The Palestinian Arab Cultural Club responded to the increasingly dire needs of the population after Al-Hilal Hospital ceased services to transport those who had passed away in the hospital. In addition, Al-Hilal Hospital and the Civil Defense do not have the capacity to provide urgent medical transportation for people needing immediate assistance.
The Club began by renting ambulances or vehicles, but eventually purchased a minibus for a total of $1000 USD, adding emergency lighting and medical signage to the refitted bus. They have already transferred several deaths and provided transportation for medical emergencies after borrowing a stretcher.
However, the interior is not equipped to provide the medical and ambulance services needed. The Arab Palestinian Cultural Club needs to:
- Refurbish the interior of the ambulance for health equipment and medical personnel, including the floor and ceiling
- Stock and provide a medicine cabinet
- Provide necessary medical equipment for transportation and treatment
- Provide oxygen cylinders for immediate health needs
- Sanitizers and cleaning equipment to ensure the ambulance is safe and sanitary.
These items will cost a total of $5000 USD. Your contribution can make the People's Ambulance of Beddawi Refugee Camp a reality.
All contributions from people in the U.S. are tax-deductible and will be processed by the Alliance for Global Justice, Samidoun's fiscal sponsor and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations from around the world are welcome and needed!
Donations to this campaign are zakat-eligible.
About The Palestinian Arab Cultural Club
The Palestinian Arab Cultural Club was founded on October the 15th 1996 by a group of independent university youth at the Lebanese University in the North.
The founding committee of the club launched cultural work starting within the university before spreading outside the University just months after the club was founded, following the election of the first administrative body of the Club's General Assembly, which was held in early 1997.
The club started running to fill the void that has been left by absence of an active Palestinian presence, particularly at the university level, and in terms of the Student cultural work in camps in general, especially after years of stagnation and decline in student work in all camps in Lebanon, all forms of student organization in camps and universities have faded, more so after 1990 and especially after the Oslo Agreement in 1993.
During the first months of formation, the club included most of the Palestinian students in the third branch of the Lebanese University and some Arab students ( Lebanese and Syrians) and it became the largest and most active university student force in the college to this day.
The club was the first to establish a national cultural activity in the Lebanese University in Qubba, after its members prepared a hall at the university on their own, and that finally happened after the long absence of cultural activity in the university for many years.
Add to that the Palestinian flag was raised for the first time in the 1990s in the Lebanese University, after its long absence.
Twenty-five years following its founding, the club's work expanded to include within it the sectors of graduates, teachers, university sectors and the student department.
It expanded into various committees such as cultural, media, technical, sports, women's affairs, counselling and guidance.
The Committee for Services and Social Work was established when the conflict broke out in Nahr al-Bared camp, the club focused on supporting the displaced from the camp and those who were returning to it - whether with aid in-kind or actions and activities-, it worked too for the return of normal life and insisted on maintaining the Palestinian character of Nahr al-Bared camp.
As the needs increased in the refugee camps, the club sought to strengthen the relief and social work, in the belief that it would link it to national work, and the importance of enabling the Palestinian refugees to be able to fight and continue the struggle, so the club set up dozens of relief campaigns in the camps in Lebanon- which the clup works in- and organised campaigns to support some families in Gaza, in addition the club tried to strengthen the meaning of symbiotic work so as not to turn into a service provider but to be a partner in struggle and resilience, and so its activities varied and we mention some in the following:
1- The TV charity cultural programs, where people can directly donate to people like the TV program "who will donate the million"
2- The Ramadan kitchen, which includes more than 60 volunteers, who prepare hot food and whole meals on a daily basis for the whole month, the meals arrive at people's homes under the title "la Bab al-Dar" which means (till the House door), in an attempt to support the poor families without them being forced to come and grovel to anyone.
3- Medical work: in the last period of the Corona Crisis, the club worked on securing the basic needs of the quarantined families, it also provided sterilization tools for some Medical working teams within the available means,
It helped and Contributed to the transfer of many patients and deaths as well, additionally the club supported many families with medicine and hospital admission expenses, plus providing 3 oxygen machines and 5 cylinders, all of these services were actualized through donations made by the residents of the camp and the expatriates.
